Sunday, July 5, 2009

Hot Weather Hot Chocolate


It's 27° in my apartment, and while I know that this is not much for most people, it is enough to make anyone in Germany melt. We're just not used to functioning in this weather. Many Germans will go off to warm sunny vacation spots & love it, but to work in this heat? Forget it.

The weather doesn't normally stay this hot for long, so it hardly seems like a worthwhile investment to get air conditioning for a few sticky weeks in summer. I'm onto other ideas: a fan bought is Spain as a constant fashion accessory, a cool foot bath, I'm even thinking of a kiddie splash pool for the balcony. I just tried out my newest cool-me-down: mint hot chocolate.

If you can still drink coffee in the heat, why not hot chocolate? And paired with some mint from my balcony, it seems like the kind of thing to cool me off.

Mint Hot Chocolate
1 cup milk
1 heaped teaspoon sugar
1 - 2 tsp cocoa powder (to taste)
1 sprig mint

Cook milk, sugar & cocoa, being careful not to let the mixture boil. Crush mint. In a cappucino frother, froth everything together. Alternatively, mix vigorously or use a blender.
Garnish with more mint.

The menthol in the mint is cooling, and the hot chocolate was soothing. I still might need to fill that pool, though.

5 comments:

Cathy said...

I'm with you - we get 2 weeks of +30 in Calgary, I refuse to invest in an air conditioner. I am known for standing in the sprinkler though :)

taste traveller said...

If I had a garden, I'd totally do the sprinkler. I think I'm the only person over the age of 12 who really, REALLY needed an inflatable pool around here, though ;-)

Murasaki Shikibu said...

Well...it's so 'hot' here and I refuse to use the word 'warm' because it's simply not 'warm' anymore when it's 37C. You can even feel the heat inside the house with the air conditioner going on full blast...so it's time to drink something cold for me. :P

Mint sounds refreshing but I think it needs to cool down a bit more here before I can drink hot chocolate again...

taste traveller said...

Murasaki: I was thinking of you as I was writing & I remembered nights in Andalusia that were 37°. Yes, it's a minor annoyance, but we don't have air conditioning :-(

I'd still trade this for some Spanish sangrias! :-)

maybelles mom said...

Thanks for visiting me. This is very delicious looking; I bet it would be good over ice too (maybe with condensed milk.) Though, this summer we have yet to hit the heat--it has been all rain.

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